Colombia hit third as Brazil rocket ninth

Brazil’s stunning victory over Spain in the FIFA Confederations Cup Final has helped reap them another reward: a 13-place leap to ninth on the July edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side won all five of their matches at that competition, and defeated France in a preparatory friendly, to collect an unrivalled 223 points over the past month.

Spain nevertheless held on to pole position ahead of Germany, while Colombia climbed four places to a personal best of third thanks to some impressive performances in FIFA World Cup™ qualifying. Meanwhile Belgium (10th, up 2) celebrated entering the top ten for the first time in history.

Participating in the FIFA Confederations Cup paid off for two other semi-finalists, as Uruguay (12th, up 7) and Italy (6th, up 2) gained ground, although the other competing teams – Mexico (20th, down 3), Nigeria (35th, down 4), Japan (37th, down 5) and Tahiti (154th, down 16) – have all fallen back.

The ongoing Brazil 2014 qualifiers and a number of friendlies have seen no fewer than seven teams rise more than 20 places, namely Cape Verde Islands (49th, up 23), Scotland (50th, up 24), Austria (54th, up 22), Guinea (61st, up 24), Armenia (66th, up 23), Senegal (74th, up 25) and Malta (133rd, up 23).

The shake-up on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking also means that Bosnia-Herzegovina (14th, up 1), Peru (19th, up 11), Albania (37th, up 1), Cape Verde Islands, Dominican Republic (90th, up 4), Tajikistan (106th, up 6) and Guam (176th, up 2) are all now higher than ever before.

In addition to the 16 FIFA Confederations Cup games, 89 FIFA World Cup qualifiers and 29 friendlies were played in the past month, bringing the total number of international ‘A’ matches taken into account this year to 440.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 8 August 2013.* Summary*